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3D TV: Did the Masters start the ball rolling?

Now that the huge Masters Tournament drive for 3D TV is over, the format and cable and network broadcasters face an uncertain future about what to show and who will watch. In Japan, generally the cutting edge of all things electronic, there's some concern that cautious broadcasters mean "3D programming may still be years away" even though the "beginning of the 3D TV era looks fairly rosy" from the perspective of television set makers. In South Korea, "debate continues on whether the (future 3D) picture is rosy or grainy" even as the country embraces the silly glasses that go along with three dimensional viewing.

Closer to home, a story in Multichannel News indicates that 3D "won't lead to a boom in sales of video delivery equipment" and that the way that 3D is being implemented by cable and satellite providers as if it were another HD channel won't have a major impact on how operators spend their money. That's not the sort of news that encourages vendors to go out there and be innovative.

Finally, there's the usual cautionary tale that accompanies any new technology. In this case, the technology is now the "old" HD and the caution is that people still don't know how to watch it. A British Video Association (BVA) study found that potentially millions of U.K. consumers think that they're watching HD television because they own an HD-ready TV. No one told them about the rest of the set-up that's needed.